Rules for MAME/arcade versions: The regular set named "scramble" in MAME; Stern, Vectrex, and other versions not allowed in the current highscore table. I will construct another table for them if there is any demand. All DIPs default: 3 lives DIP setting, Upright cabinet! Autofire is no longer banned (good luck).

Required format for basic score entry: Score - player name - played on (MAME, PCB?)The full format with all optional information filled out would be: Score - player's three-letter initials - loop / area reached - player's full name - played on (MAME, PCB?)I am currently not tracking autofire use.

Please keep track of how far you have invaded the scramble system ! It will be noted in the scores list.

2) stay just above the lowest point the saucers drop to. this makes them easier to shoot. you qwill get thru the first few lopseasy as long as you bomb a lot and hit some fuel.

3) don't try to skim the ground! you will sometimes get away with it, but sometimes you will run headlong into a fireball. sta a couple ship height above the mountains, didge and try to bomb the fuel as best as you can. this gets harder with each loop.

4) bomb and laser a lot.

5) don't bomb, laser, and be sre to move fowrard asap so you can cut back while moving vert.
6) make a suicide run at the base. even if you die, the stage will end before it takes the life away, and you won't lose a life.

In the later loops it's stage 2 and 3 that will kill you as it get sahrder and harder to hit aenough fuel to stay alive.

Zaphod, it took me a few tries to get what you are saying, but I agree 95% with your points :D I have never tried to bomb in the fifth area; it's pointless except for that one spot where you might be able to land some bombs on a fuel tank or two, but it's not necessary.

For area 3, I always skim the ground - during the first loop, anyway, when it's not too aggravating to have to start over because of a lost ship. After looping the game (just did it my third time), I play more cautiously. It needs to be emphasized that fireballs can and will corner you if you are on the wrong side of a hill and near the left side of the screen. If you are going to skim the hills, press off to the right as much as possible (giving yourself a bit of room to dodge fireballs, naturally).

Anyhow, I had a pretty good run just now, and I kept my adrenaline level down which meant it was a pretty fun play too. I got to the fourth area in the second run and got toasted (which was where I got zapped last time), but did improve my score up to 43,610, which is over a thousand points better (from 42,250). I'm not really frustrated that I didn't do better; this is my third time looping the game (my second time was my first score in the 30K range - yes, after my first 40K score there was a gigantic gap between 29K and 42K; actually there still is with my third score being just 30K or so). I'm only just a bit peeved that I'll have to do it again and this time manage to dodge those rockets to do better. I could have had a score in the 50K range, but this will do.

I also pulled this off on my weaker computer, and running Folding@Home in the background...it's best to let your computer settle a bit so response isn't jerky. Loading things from the drive has the worst effect for me on this ol' machine.

As a kid, I lived on Scramble back in the early 80s. I love this game and played it to death. I eventually managed to score 1,000,000+ four times, but never managed a fifth. (I'd stop after I got a million each time as I was tired and also the score went back to 0, but the hi score would change to 999,990) Took me over 3 hours to get a million - VERY EXHAUSTING, I can tell you.

In MAME, the most I could manage was 415,000, using the keyboard. I've just purchased an X-Arcade joystick so I am hopeful of getting a fifth million, albeit 25 years or so after I first managed it!

Was it exactly 415K (I don't doubt you)? Any information you can give would be good for helping to flesh out the highscore table :)

I find it helpful to use Shift+F7 to save my state after getting a highscore; when I start the game up again it'll have all the highscores (it's like the highscore.dat hack for MAME). It's also good for letting me start right at the beginning of the game without having to wait through the little introduction music :)

Something else you might find interesting: BridgeM1 lets you play three hidden (unused?) little musical jingles not normally available. Be sure to get the list packs if you get that player.

Wasn't exactly 415K. I never 't bothered with the last bits of the score when you start to get into 6 figures.

By the way, in Ireland, we had the Konami version of Scramble, not the Stern version. The Stern version is MUCH harder. Your fuel goes down much more quickly and also way more rockets shoot up at you from the ground, especially in the walled city section. If you don't bpmb the fuel dumps in this section, you will die.

My present hiscore.dat MAME file has a high score of about 385K (Konami version) - don't have the exact figure with me right now (I'm in work). I can email the hiscore.dat file to you if you like - It's the Konami version. I played the Stern version the other night and got about 93K. I must do it properly and see what I can get on the Stern Scramble.

Is BridgeM1 any better than MAME?

I found that once I started getting good, my hi scores started leaping up. I remember the day I first played Scramble - I think i got about 650 points and thought it was a crap game, because I was so bad.

I was on an exchange program with a French guy in 1981 and when I went over there, the only video game there was Scramble, except it was called Explorer. I played the crap out of it but could only manage about 25K(ish).
When I came back home, I continued playing Scramble. I eventually got past the Base and started my second loop.
My scores slowly started creeping up higher and higher.

I remember coming in one day and seeing a high score of around 250K - I couldn't beieve my eyes. Then the next week it was around 350K. I then watched some guys get 500K+ then about 612K+ until I finally saw this guy who got an unbelievable 886K. I thought that was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen.

A year or two passed and my scores were getting better - 300K+, 400K+ etc. I remember very clearly the day I past 886K - I didn't get a million that day but I knew that I had beaten absolutely everyone else. Then one of the times I got a million, this guy was watching me. He told me that his hi score was 886K. I stopped and looked at him - I didn't recognise him - I told him that I had watched him get that score a few years earlier and that he was the reason I kept playing it - amazing!!

Oh, sorry, it's just a music player. Still worth it to hear the few extra jingles in there, though!

Interesting note about the Stern version (which I've never tried) - if I had an actual machine that's most certainly what I'd have. But with MAME, I've been playing the original which you can apparently loop a good number of times.

Since i'm still fairly new here i'm trying to catch up on these high score threads. I like playing classic arcade games and seeing how good i am at them. I'm glad i joined this website, some of these games i've never played before and didn't know about.

Looking at it again, I see some obvious problems. I might have to come back later and edit the text in the opening post, since some of it is misleading (this isn't a board for the Vectrex version, and I doubt anybody is playing it for score.)

1.) Different versions might be harder / easier than others. Would need to split boards and rework the intro text if that's the case. I still rely on players carefully checking the versions they use, although if what's been suggested is true, submitting the Stern version against other versions (on this board) would be a self-handicap.2.) I don't think there's a reason why jonny3d should have all top three spots...edited out.

us US people had to deal with the evil Stern version. I'm pretty sure that ones becoms unwinnable pretty fast.

A word of warning for those who want to play Scramble in the PS1 by means of the Konami Arcade Classics disc (US/NTSC)This seems to be this "Stern" version because: - lose any FUEL tank in loop 3 and you're toast; - yes, those damn missiles seem to be angrier; - tunnels in section 5 seem to be less forgiving with hit detection; - the lower narrow tunnel before the last upward sweep has 3 FUEL tanks, regular Scramble doesn't have any.

Thanks for that information. I haven't collected enough highscores to do a version for Stern scores, and I would feel bad about forcing MAME use if the PlayStation version is just as good, but given this apparent uncertainty it seems wise not to open another thread just yet. If there is some demand I will consider it, of course.